Trio of fires chars acreage in Santa Clarita Valley

Three fires have charred several acres in and around the Santa Clarita Valley today, including a prescribed burn that raged out of control in Castaic.

The blazes erupted after unseasonably hot weather dried out brush, giving the fire season an early start.

"Here we are in the middle of May and we are seeing the (fire conditions) that are usually in July," said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Frank Garrido.

Firefighters briefly lost control of a controlled burn off of The Old Road in Castaic about 1 p.m. It blackened about 25 acres before firefighters put it out at 1:50 p.m.

Controlled burns are set intentionally by firefighters to clear brush. In theory, the firefighters have control of the flames and put them out once they've done their job.

It was unclear what caused the firefighters to lose control of the flames, Garrido said.

Two other small fires also popped up today.

About 10:20 a.m. in Valencia near the 25500 block of W. Avenue Stanford, and electrical transformer sparked a fire that charred about two acres before firefighters doused it about an hour later, Garrido said.

At 12:50 p.m., flames broke out near state Highway 14 near Little Rock. Firefighters put out the one-and-a-half-acre fire by 1:15 p.m.

A fire on Sunday also blackened 12 acres near the Acton Rehabilitation Center. That blaze was set off by a lawnmower.